Marvel Approaches Argentinian Director Lucrecia Martel to Direct ‘Black Widow’, Hilarity Ensues

In 2008, Lucrecia Martel made the challenging film The Headless Woman, about a wealthy woman's descent into madness after she hits and kills what may have been a child—or a dog, who can tell—with her car. It's a deep, dense, aggravating film and nothing about it would suggest to me that the director wanted to transition into big budget movies at any point in time.

Kevin Feige watched that movie, however, and thought to himself, "That's exactly the director for our Black Widow movie," because Martel was approached by Marvel to direct the Scarlett Johansson vehicle. In an interview with The Daily Pioneer, Martel reveals that Marvel courted her by letting her know that all the difficult stuff about directing one of these Marvel movies would be left for a man to do...

"I received an e-mail from Marvel for a meeting. Because they were looking for directors for 'Black Widow'. So I went to the reunion. I actually signed this thing where I can't talk about that reunion. Marvel and other such production houses are trying to involve more female filmmakers," Martel said.

"I do believe another female director is making the movie (now). What they told me in the meeting was 'we need a female director because we need someone who is mostly concerned with the development of Scarlett Johansson's character.'"

"They also told me 'don't worry about the action scenes, we will take care of that.' I was thinking, well I would love to meet Scarlett Johansson but also I would love to make the action sequences," Martel said.

"Companies are interested in female filmmakers but they still think action scenes are for male directors. The first thing I asked them was maybe if they could change the special effects because there's so many laser lights... I find them horrible. Also the soundtrack of Marvel films is quite horrendous. Maybe we disagree on this but it's really hard to watch a Marvel film. It's painful to the ears to watch Marvel films," she said.

The filmmaker then quipped, "But just in case any of this is going to be on YouTube, I would love to make 'Black Widow'."

Marvel's achievements cannot be denied, but it's always nice to hear a director rip on them. Why the hell they approached Martel for this job in the first place is beyond me. Hearing her talk about it, though, I can't help but wonder how bugnuts the movie would have been if they left her to her own devices and allowed her to choreograph the action sequences herself. It would've been the weirdest Marvel movie by a mile, no doubt. If you want to see the better version of Blue Jasmine, check out The Headless Woman, it's a trip.

[h/t ComicBookMovie]